Tuesday, October 10, 2006

At Sierra Trading Post, our goal is to provide the highest-quality name-brand merchandise at 35 to 70% off retail prices, while at the same time providing a second-to-none customer experience. We recognize that customers are demanding a faster, easier, and more secure online shopping experience these days, and as an online retailer, we want to provide technologies that will allow for this experience.

As customers become more concerned about having their credit card information stored in many different places on the web (as a result of online purchases), we feel that a service that can provide a centralized location for storing this information married with the ability to use this information at many of the places they want to shop will become increasingly valuable. Google Checkout has been built in a way that satisfies all of these customer concerns, as well as several business ones -- by the use of AdWords badge, we are able to capture a more targeted visitor base; by the use of Google Checkout-specific coupons, we have the ability to run unique promotions concurrent to our own; and by the use of Google Checkout marketing efforts, we are able to attract an additional subset of online shoppers.

We have seen (at times) new customer rates higher than 60 percent, transaction fee savings upwards of 20 percent, and 1,000+ percent increases in Google Checkout sales due to word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. There have also been positive results on other levels, and we look forward to additional long-term customer and business benefits that this innovation will provide.